Ten Things We Learned This Week

Watch out, crims of California; the LA Police department - long time friends of NWA, of course - have got themselves a Gallardo and decked it out in US police livery. And it looks really cool.

Obviously just a show pony - and in no way acquired using public funds! - the car is nevertheless another reason not to do anything illegal in the City Of Angels. Not that anyone does, of course...

Click here to find out how the old Gallardo evolved

Click here to see the world's best police cars

Ayrton Senna's birthday is on March 21. Had the great Brazilian three-time Formula One world champion been alive, he would have turned 54 this week. Google has commemorated his birthday with a Doodle, and it's really, really cool. We salute you, People of Google.

A simple tweet from Goodwood's official account revealed that Porsche is planning on celebrating 40 years of the 911 Turbo at this year's Festival of Speed (preview here)... along with presenting the new 911 GT3 RS for the very first time. Yes, and indeed, please.

That is of course, subject to Porsche sorting out the, erm, fire risk on the 'standard' GT3. Remember we told you Hammond wasn't allowed to drive his new GT3? It's because after two engine fires on 2014-spec cars, Porsche advised all new customers not to drive their cars and recalled the lot.

Now, after figuring out what was wrong (a loose screw on the connecting rod making it, um, loose, which in turn damaged the crankcase and led to an oil leak which promptly ignited), Porsche is replacing the engines on all 785 vehicles affected, and will use ‘optimised screw fittings' for new GT3s being built.

Which means it'll have a helluva lot of old engines on its hands. What to do with all those lovely flat sixers? Can we have one please? We promise we'll use Hammond's oven gloves...

Guerlain Chicherit was attempting to break the world record for the longest jump in a car in a custom built Mini. On Tuesday 18 March at 8.35am in France, he jumped 82 metres. Unfortunately, his car ‘rotated beyond its anticipated trajectory' upon landing and crashed. Ouch.

Happily, Guerlain was conscious when tended to at the scene and was taken to hospital, from where he posted this picture to his Facebook page to reassure fans. Chin up, sir.

Earlier this week we showed you a fan-made video putting last year's F1 season opener in Australia against this year's race. The reason? To showcase just how quiet Formula One has become. Also, a pertinent time to commiserate with those poor ear defender manufacturers, who are now all out of work.

Replacing the old CL63 AMG comes this, the new AMG version of the new S-Class Coupe. It's fast - think 5.5-litre, twin-turbo V8 fast - producing 585bhp and many, many torques. It'll take you from nought to indecency in a very short time, all in leather lined opulence.

Read the full story here

We spent some time with the Alfa Romeo 4C - and the people who made it - earlier this week, and learned that along with the option of the Spider's headlights, the 4C would get yearly updates. We asked whether this meant a hotter, more hardcore version of the 4C, and Alfa said 'they're looking into it'.

Is a hotter Alfa 4C on its way? Full story here

The Stig has had a very busy week of racing, because ‘Race The Stig' became the third-most popular mobile game on the planet. Some say it is available right now for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Google Play, and you just need to go to the link below to download it.

Click here to download the game

Oh, and for all you gamers who have read this far, here's a reward. Type bbcentertainment in as a bonus code and you'll get a +5 score multiplier...

We had a chance to rummage around Audi's top-secret collection of very rare cars, located on the fringes of an industrial estate in Ingolstadt. Inside this secret building sit many exotic and rare vehicles, and we were only allowed access to one floor. But that one floor was filled with motorsport goodness, and Top Gear had a small crisis when we managed to wangle the keys...

Read the full story here